This article is more than 1 year old

Apple rains refunds on Peace'd off axed ad-blocker netizens

'As far as I know, this effectively never happens'

The bloke who created and then withdrew the Peace ad-blocking tool for iOS 9 said Apple has now decided to refund all purchases of the app.

Marco Arment said Monday that Apple was now issuing refunds for all users who downloaded his ad-blocking tool.

Normally, if you download an app that is later pulled from the store, you get to keep the app, and Apple and the developer keep your money. Now things have gone weird, with Apple refunding people the $2.99 they each spent on Peace.

"As far as I know, this effectively never happens," Arment wrote.

"When I decided to pull the app, I asked some Apple friends if this was even possible, and we all thought the same thing: iTunes billing works the way it works, period, and no special cases can be made."

This comes after thousands of users had manually requested to have their purchases refunded from the iOS App Store.

Arment has been advising users to ask for their money back ever since he decided to kill off his app last Friday. Originally intended to be a simple ad-blocker for iOS 9 things, Peace rocketed up the top downloads list to become the most popular item on the App Store for a short time.

Unfortunately, said Arment, the app worked a bit too well, and all advertisements were blocked in the Safari browser. Worried that his creation was harming publishers and acting in ways he had never intended, the developer decided to pull the plug on Peace, and direct users towards other ad-blockers that were less heavy-handed when deciding whether to block a web advertisement.

Arment is not sure whether users who downloaded Peace will still be able to use the app after their refunds come through.

It was estimated that in its 36-hour run, prior to Arment pulling the App, Peace had managed to tally up more than $100,000 in sales. Now, says Arment, Apple will be giving that money back to customers, and that's alright by him.

"Today, Apple made the decision for me, in a way that I didn't even think was possible, and I'm actually happy," he said, "or at least, as happy as someone can be who just made a lot of money on a roller coaster of surprise, guilt, and stress, then lost it all suddenly in a giant, unexpected reset that actually resolves things pretty well." ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like